Despite the undeniable statistic that driving is the most dangerous thing for a 25-year-old to do, driving, especially in curvy areas at 80 mph is really fun. I have two cds that are engineered to inflict the most damage possible to the speed limit. Harm is a virtue so long as the harm has a purpose. Though ends do not justify means and means do not justify ends, those things which satisfy both conditions of suitable means and ends can be justifiable. You can call me justifiably.

I suspect I'll get some work done on Small Wide World, but I've got some other work to do tonight.

I was talking while totally plastered last night about the reason I don't like nature. I don't like trees. I don't like insects. I don't like fish or wildlife. I don't like dangerous stuff. I don't like beautiful views. I don't like losing hope of ever getting back to safety. At age 15 my family went on a dangerous kayaking trip far enough away from civilization and unprepared enough that we could have been lost at sea. During that trip, I failed to keep calm. I paniced because my arms were failing and I was making stupid mistakes. I nearly fell out of my kayak just out of frustration. Had I fallen out on purpose or by accident, I would have a very low chance of surviving. If you think about it, my adolescent mind failed the test of whether it was stable enough to face possible death.

I am no longer adolescent and I no longer fear death with such dread and panic. But I will not forgive nature because nature is also unforgiving. Nature will take your life and ask for seconds. Nature will kill an innocent infant. Nature will stuff a rabid wolverine down your pants and tell you that it's not personal, it's just business. I know people like that. I can't stand people like that. I am a very tolerant person, but I do not tolerate nature's neutrality in the dealing with life. If a person murdered a friend of yours in cold blood and said: "it was your friend's fault, he should have been prepared," you would probably go off on this gdmfsob, right? Well there you go. That person is nature and s/he and I are not on speaking terms you see.

Nature's grandchild, metropolis is an interesting and difficult creature, but it does not murder people in cold blood.

Will I go camping with you? Sure. I've even got a tarp, a tent, and a sleeping bag. I can make a fire with a small very dry log and some homemade firestarter. Will I have a Blair Witch style moment? Probably.

Sometimes I think that I talk too much. Is it bad that I share my thoughts with people when sharing those thoughts isn't helpful? Sometimes familiarity makes deeper friendships, other times it can breed contempt. But where do you draw the line? If I wanted to I could change my name, move to a new city, and stop talking to people about things I think about. But I don't see any need at this time to take such a rash action. I like talk. If I ever say too much you know you can tell me because I'll never hold your disinterest against you. But even when people aren't interested, they'll keep listening. So it's up to me to decide at what point are my thoughts drowning out reasonable conversation. And I'll learn.

There's one thing you can't say about me is that I don't learn. One day I have this skillset. The next I have more. I feed on data and turn it into knowledge. If I can share that knowledge efficiently without boring people with knowledge they don't want, then I won't have to worry about talking too much. There's only so much useful topical knowledge a person can grab even if they have text scrolling all day every day.

Japan is a cool place. The social phenomena there is enough for hundreds of research papers in Japanese and in English. How much should a foreigner try to say in Japan? Translate this: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?